Citation

Ruff HA, Capozzoli MC. Dev. Psychol. 2003; 39(5): 877-890.

Affiliation

Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA. ruff@aecom.yu.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12952400

Abstract

This observational study describes the early development of attention and discractibility. Under several conditions of distraction, 172 children at 10, 26, and 42 months of age played with toys. Attention to the toys was coded as casual, settled, or focused. All 3 levels of attention changed with age, withcasual attention decreasing and focused attention increasing. The 10-month-olds were more distractible than the other children, even during focused attention. The infants were most distracted by the auditory-visual distractor, whereas the oldest children were most distracted by the visual distractor. Some 42-month-olds showed evidence of being more focused in the presence of distractors. Overall, the results point to a developmental transition in the processes underlying attention during play.

Language: en